Environmental Justice

Vision

Our environment is our most precious resource and must be protected. Tom will be a staunch defender of our waters, our air, and our land. He will work in Lansing to ensure that everyone in our state can be sure that neither their air, water, or land will make them sick, and that our waterways are protected from corporate greed. It’s up to us to ensure that Michigan’s state motto remains true for generations to come: “if you seek a beautiful peninsula, look around you”.

Policies

Access to clean, safe, and affordable water is a right. Tom will fight to restore water quality throughout the state and to ensure water rates are affordable for all residents. No one should ever face a shut off and Tom will help to bring the number of homes without water to zero.

Tom will continue to fight against polluters like Marathon and AK Steel, who seek corporate welfare at the expense of our community. He will build on his track-record of holding polluters accountable to the community and helping those impacted by pollution seek damages, as he did working in the State Senate and with Congressman Hansen Clarke.

Tom will join with fellow Democrats to ensure that a citizens oversight commission is created over the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), so that a tragedy like the Flint Water Crisis can never be swept under the rug again.

Tom will work to find ways to prevent the expansion of US Ecology’s facility and to force them to clean up the damage they’ve already caused in our neighborhoods.

Tom will push to ensure that Nestle pays its fair share to extract Michigan drinking water and sell it to out-of-state customers.

Tom will support common-sense measure to protect residents from industrial pollutants by requiring corporations to install natural barriers or offer above-market payments to nearby homeowners to buy them out of their properties.

Tom will fight against hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, calling for an immediate ban on the practice and requiring all companies who have fracked to disclose exactly what chemical solutions were pumped into our ground.

Tom believes that Enbridge Line 5, an aging oil pipeline under the Mackinac Straits, is a clear and present danger to all Michigan citizens and must be immediately and safely shut down. Tom will be proud to bring together a coalition to close the pipeline and hold Enbridge accountable for its environmental damage.

Tom will work to help improve energy efficiency to drive down energy costs and reduce pollution through funding weatherization tax credits for businesses & individuals, while partnering with organizations like Young Detroit Builders to ensure that our neighbors and children are the ones hired for these jobs.

Tom will fight to bring more jobs to our community while improving our environment through making Michigan a leader in recycling technologies. He will work to make curbside recycling universal while bringing advanced single-stream recycling facilities to the area. He will also work to promote recycling of plastic bottles and bags through expanding deposit programs and enabling localities to levy fees on bags at stores.